Faith is a talented physical therapist who has owned and operated successful health clinics since 1992. She is currently the owner of Rejuvenation Health and a strong advocate in the health and wellness arena. Faith was a finalist for the 2016 AWE Upsurge Award.

When asked what her biggest success of 2015 had been, Faith replied with a single word after a moment of reflection: survival. Faith was not only battling through the economic slowdown, but facing a much more personal battle with cancer this last year. What allowed her to come out on top of these challenges was having her business strategy already secured in many areas, as well as having the love and support of her husband and two daughters.

While the impact the economy had on their business was unexpected, Faith had spent sufficient time on her business strategy to ensure things were moving in the right direction by taking part in the PeerSpark™ program (formerly called ‘Excelerator’) and working with a goal-setting coach. “Going through the [PeerSpark™] program was helpful in getting me to be more focused and to understand leadership from the perspective of business building as opposed to only managing my team. It also taught me that asking for help goes a long way in covering your own deficiencies.”

As for what wasn’t already in place, the slowdown in clients actually gave the business more time to focus on strategies that needed attention, such as building a second line of communication for referral sources. Instead of complacently braving out the storm, Faith and her team found alternative ways to build the business. “My brain is never linear – at the back there is always a Plan B, and sometimes a C, and a D.”

Faith first came to AWE two years ago when Rejuvenation Health was experiencing a period of rapid growth. They were struggling with cash flow, but as Faith explained, “when you’re an entrepreneur you develop a kind of tolerance for discomfort, and you just go with it.” An eye-opening moment came for her when one day she was looking at a graph that showed that only 4 per cent of businesses ever made it to the place Rejuvenation Health was currently in. Next, the graph showed a steep cliff, where the majority of the few who made it to that spot failed, due to improper cash flow management. It was then that Faith decided the discomfort was no longer something they should be tolerating and started applying for loans.

“Working capital was what we needed, but we couldn’t get any from the banks or other funding sources. I got a loan for $150,000 from AWE, which helped us from tumbling off that cliff we were headed toward. We needed a little bit of room and AWE bent over backwards to help us get that money.”

Faith also had the opportunity to attend multiple trade missions over the past few years which combined with her experience in the PeerSpark™ program, has put her in an opportune position for international expansion.

“After attending Go for the Greens trade mission in Florida in September of 2015, I was able to target smaller international groups for global opportunities. I can now see real opportunity for working with corporations on the international level on the Business-to-Business side of the company, and I am implementing this piece of the corporate strategy to be launched as an advanced prototype in the fall.”

Moving forward, Faith will be focusing on making the business as lean and efficient as possible so it can be easily scaled up. She will be taking an active role in launching their corporate membership program, called ‘Full Circle Corporate Services.’ Although she does not plan on ever completely retiring, Faith would like to eventually shift her focus to consulting for these corporations on an individual-needs basis in this area. She has also been volunteering her time towards a bit of a passion project by working with track and field athletes who have great potential but are being held back by a physical limitation that needs to be treated in order to maximize their performance. Ultimately, Faith would love to see track and field grow here and see the talent develop, giving kids an outlet and a chance to develop a passion for the sport, as Faith has had the opportunity to have.

This fearless leader has brought her business to a place where it can not only survive, but thrive, in the years to come.